Videos of Freestyle timing, pulling pattern, arm position
Former Member
Great Videos to show your swimmers. Good stuff.
Phelps and Thorpe
At approximately 30sec, 48 sec, 1min, and more, you’ll see the hand enter from both Phelps and Thorpe when the opposite hand is in the EVF position and during the power phase.
www.youtube.com/watch
Slow motion – You’ll see the forearm in an EVF position as the other hand enters.
www.youtube.com/watch
Grant Hackett – Great EVF and then the hand enters
www.youtube.com/watch
Jason Lezak – The most pronounced EVF of all the competitors who’s hand enters the water while the other is in the EVF position.
www.youtube.com/watch
Ziegler Holds off Laure Manaudou = Awesome looks at when one are is in the EVF position the other enters the water.
www.youtube.com/watch
Rebecca Adlington Olympic 400 m Freestyle Great Britian – Her EVF is gorgeous and her timing is great too.
www.youtube.com/watch
Parents
Former Member
If you watch frame by frame you'll see that the far arm and near arm look considerably different but look at the the same person when that arm is toward you and you'll see that it's in the power phase when the other arm enters. Good try!
Just to be clear, you look at the first image and see his left arm in EVF or power phase?
No, I don't advocate swimming the catchup drill in races, my point is just that if you are going to rely on video for evidence you can't just select the frame that appears to support your position, and a lot of people do just that. There is a lot of variability in strokes, especially at different distances, and one size doesn't fit all. That said, some things, like dropped elbows are almost never effective.
The thing is that swimming mechanics aren't simple and the various components of the stroke are all interrelated. If one isn't careful one can easily draw false conclusions, witness the whole lift versus drag debacle. In some sense it would be ideal if we shortened the recovery time significantly so the arms spent more time pulling, but there are complicated whole-body reasons why it isn't necessarily better to recover the arms faster.
Btw, if you look at the side with the later catch and look at the time from when the hand finishes the pull, i.e. ceases to provide propulsion, to when he achieves his catch there is definitely a period where no propulsion is coming from the arms. Maybe that is a flaw in his stroke, or maybe there is a good underlying reason for it.
If you watch frame by frame you'll see that the far arm and near arm look considerably different but look at the the same person when that arm is toward you and you'll see that it's in the power phase when the other arm enters. Good try!
Just to be clear, you look at the first image and see his left arm in EVF or power phase?
No, I don't advocate swimming the catchup drill in races, my point is just that if you are going to rely on video for evidence you can't just select the frame that appears to support your position, and a lot of people do just that. There is a lot of variability in strokes, especially at different distances, and one size doesn't fit all. That said, some things, like dropped elbows are almost never effective.
The thing is that swimming mechanics aren't simple and the various components of the stroke are all interrelated. If one isn't careful one can easily draw false conclusions, witness the whole lift versus drag debacle. In some sense it would be ideal if we shortened the recovery time significantly so the arms spent more time pulling, but there are complicated whole-body reasons why it isn't necessarily better to recover the arms faster.
Btw, if you look at the side with the later catch and look at the time from when the hand finishes the pull, i.e. ceases to provide propulsion, to when he achieves his catch there is definitely a period where no propulsion is coming from the arms. Maybe that is a flaw in his stroke, or maybe there is a good underlying reason for it.
